Maryland leaders voted Wednesday to cut $148 million from the state budget, due to what they described as “stagnant” revenues paired with rising health care and child care costs.
The cuts span state government. They include $12 million for local health departments, $6 million to boost security at higher education institutions, and a little over $1 million for pay raises at the Office of the Public Defender. Many of the reductions delay hiring for new positions in state government.
Gov. Wes Moore — who chairs the three-member Board of Public Works that approved the cuts — said the changes are designed to prioritize health care and child care spending.
“We know that when Marylanders have access to health care and also access to preventative care, and when families have access to affordable childcare, they are more likely to participate in our labor force and participate in our economy,” he said. “And the key is we've got to have an economy where more people can participate.”
The changes to the budget the legislature approved earlier this year will help pay for increased Medicaid enrollments and increased child care scholarships, Helene Grady, secretary of the state Department of Budget and Management.
Representatives of several affected programs and agencies urged the Board of Public Works to reject the budget cuts.
Maryland Public Defender Natasha Dartigue criticized the decision to include her agency, which she said “has been woefully under-resourced for decades,” on the list of those losing funds.
“We are constitutionally mandated as the last shield of protection for the very people for whom this board seeks to find better health care and child care,” she said. “If [the Office of the Public Defender] does not function well, this is not only a loss in humanity, but it essentially stops the gears of the criminal legal system in Maryland.”
Charlotte Davis, executive director of the Rural Maryland Council, called on the Board of Public Works to reverse its plan to cut $2.25 million from the state Department of Agriculture program, amounting to nearly 25% of its budget.
The rural parts of the state have the highest unemployment and poverty rates and the lowest per-capita incomes, Davis said.
“It's going to cause a lot of pain in our rural communities who can least afford to absorb this cut,” she said.
State Treasurer Dereck Davis and Comptroller Brooke Lierman, who together with Moore make up the Board of Public Works, echoed Moore’s comments that the cuts are unfortunate but necessary.
And Grady indicated that there may be more budget reductions to come in the fall, after officials have a better sense of this year’s revenue numbers.
